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In an address to the National Press Club, the chair of the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, touched on a less-cited reason for sluggish residential development.
Lloyd-Hurwitz, who was appointed to lead the independent body when it was established last year, addressed the National Press Club on 4 September 2024, with a speech that meticulously detailed the issues contributing to an acute shortage of supply across the sales, rental and affordable housing sectors.
In a talk that covered the slowdowns impacting shovel-ready land, the limited volume of the building sector and everything in between, Lloyd-Hurwitz also made mention of a barrier to home building that is well-known, but perhaps less-mentioned, in the current discourse that focuses largely on the significant material constraints of the housing system.
In her view, Australian attitudes towards development are continuing to have an impact on the country’s ability to produce the homes it so desperately needs.
“The fact is, we need to supply more housing, close to jobs, transport and amenity. And of course this takes us straight into the heartland of the debate between the ‘Not in My Backyard’ and ‘Yes in My Backyard’ tribes. What should we build, where, and how dense should our cities be?,” Lloyd-Hurwitz said.
She acknowledged that far from being a new debate, this discussion has been part of the Australian consciousness for most of the nation’s modern history.
“Back in 1929 one newspaper lamented, ‘Flats rear their heads over some of Sydney’s noblest headlands. They are invading suburbs which for years have been the pride of peaceful home lovers, where the happy laughter of children resounded in the streets,’” she said.
A former development executive, having served as CEO of Mirvac for over a decade, Lloyd-Hurwitz may come from a particular side of this debate. But her background has equipped her with a keen understanding of how this discourse has shaped public perception as well as the systems that determine what gets off the ground.
Lloyd-Hurwitz points to this attitude lurking in the subtext of a catchphrase that has become increasingly popular among governments presenting their designs on rezoning: “Density done well”.
The slogan has not found a fan in Lloyd-Hurwitz, who said it implies “density is a bad thing which we need to do as well as possible. When in fact, better use of space in our cities can foster amenity, vibrancy and walkability”.
It’s a sentiment she argued has seeped into the very fabric of the nation’s planning systems, determining the way density plans play out.
“The frameworks and processes that dictate what gets built, and where, are hugely biased against change. This is largely because the people who already live in an area where more housing is proposed are the ones who get a voice in supporting or opposing development. The people who may enjoy living there in the future, they get no say,” Lloyd-Hurwitz told the press club.
Among the many fixes that are needed to address the issues that have led to Australia’s housing crisis, Lloyd-Hurwitz listed changing attitudes as part of the equation.
“We need to remove politics from the assessment process, digitise our systems, and move towards performance-based systems and away from open discretion,” she stated.
The National Housing Supply and Affordability Council feels that there is already some traction in this space, with Lloyd-Hurwitz noting that states and territories have already committed to a slew of reforms.
But to be successful, she argued that community support is essential.
“[These reforms] need to be implemented and embedded, and that’s not always easy when at the same time we need to bring communities along to understand the importance of providing significantly more housing, particularly around transport infrastructure and existing amenity while at the same time honouring the character of places.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juliet Helmke
Based in Sydney, Juliet Helmke has a broad range of reporting and editorial experience across the areas of business, technology, entertainment and the arts. She was formerly Senior Editor at The New York Observer.
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